Thirty years of invasion: the distribution of the invasive crayfish Procambarus clarkii in Italy

Parrino, Elia Lo; Ficetola, Gentile Francesco; Manenti, Raoul; Falaschi, Mattia

doi:10.21426/b635047157

Cited by 16 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 44 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In the early 2000s, the invasive crayfish was first detected in southern Lombardy and then it spread northward 33 . The local climate did not show any evident change in temperature or precipitation during 2000–2017 (both p > 0.15), and the climatic differences existing between foothills and lowlands remained consistent (Supplementary Note 1 ; Supplementary Table 1 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such a pattern suggests that climate was a major selective force and counter-gradient selection caused clear local adaptations, with foothill populations showing faster development to counteract environmental constraints. Starting from 2004, however, the invasive crayfish spread across the study area 33 , successfully colonizing breeding sites and representing an unprecedented selective pressure for these frogs. The invasion was particularly intense in lowlands 38 , where nearly all the breeding sites are now colonized by crayfish.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The American red-clawed crayfish is native to north-eastern Mexico and south-central USA and was first detected in Lombardy in the early 2000’s 33 . Since then the crayfish has successfully colonized a large number of wetlands, particularly in the south of the study area.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Rapid adaptation to invasive predators overwhelms natural gradients of intraspecific variation

2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Invasive predators can exert strong selection on native populations. If selection is strong enough, populations could lose the phenotypic variation caused by adaptation to heterogeneous environments. We compare frog tadpoles prior to and 14 years following invasion by crayfish. Prior to the invasion, populations differed in their intrinsic developmental rate, with tadpoles from cold areas reaching metamorphosis sooner than those from warm areas. Following the invasion, tadpoles from invaded populations develop faster than those from non-invaded populations. This ontogenetic shift overwhelmed the intraspecific variation between populations in a few generations, to the point where invaded populations develop at a similar rate regardless of climate. Rapid development can have costs, as fast-developing froglets have a smaller body size and poorer jumping performance, but compensatory growth counteracts some costs of development acceleration. Strong selection by invasive species can disrupt local adaptations by dampening intraspecific phenotypic variation, with complex consequences on lifetime fitness.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Rapid adaptation to invasive predators overwhelms natural gradients of intraspecific variation

2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In 2002, the red swamp crayfish ( Procambarus clarkii ), a crayfish native to North America, was introduced in the study area (Lo Parrino et al. 2020). Subsequent introductions and natural dispersal events allowed the quick spread of the crayfish, which has now invaded many of the sampled wetlands (Appendix S7).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long‐term drivers of persistence and colonization dynamics in spatially structured amphibian populations

Falaschi

Giachello

Parrino

et al. 2021

Conservation Biology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many organisms live in networks of local populations connected by dispersing individuals, called spatially structured populations (SSPs), where the long-term persistence of the entire network is determined by the balance between two processes acting at the scale of local populations: extinction and colonization. When multiple threats act on an SSP, a comparison of the different factors determining local extinctions and colonizations is essential to plan sound conservation actions. Here we assessed the drivers of long-term population dynamics of multiple amphibian species at the regional scale. We used dynamic occupancy models within a Bayesian framework to identify the factors determining persistence and colonization of local populations. Since connectivity among patches is fundamental for SSPs dynamics, we considered two measures of connectivity acting on each focal patch: incidence of the focal species and incidence of invasive crayfish. We used meta-analysis to summarize the effect of different drivers at the community level. Persistence and colonization of local populations were jointly determined by factors acting at different scales. Persistence probability was positively related to the area and the permanence of wetlands, while it showed a negative relationship with the occurrence of fish. Colonization probability was highest in semipermanent wetlands and in sites with a high incidence of the focal species in nearby sites, while it showed a negative relationship with the incidence of invasive crayfish in the landscape. By analyzing long-term data on amphibian population dynamics, we found a strong effect of some classic features commonly used in SSP studies, such as patch area and focal species incidence. The presence of an invasive alien species at the landscape-scale emerged as one of the strongest drivers of colonization dynamics, suggesting that studies on SSPs should consider different connectivity measures more frequently, such as the incidence of predators, especially when dealing with biological invasions.

show abstract

“…The spread of crayfish plague initially followed the crayfish trade and the location of rearing facilities established across Europe . Nowadays, at least nine species of North American crayfish are well established in Europe (Kouba et al, 2014;Weiperth et al, 2017); among them, the most widespread are an astacid, the signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus), and three cambarids, the red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii), the spiny-cheek crayfish (Faxonius limosus), and the marbled crayfish (Procambarus virginalis) (Kouba et al, 2014;Lo Parrino et al, 2020). With the recent observation of the cambarid Cambarellus patzcuarensis in Hungary, the Central and Western European indigenous crayfish species have been strongly outnumbered by non-indigenous species (Weiperth et al, 2017(Weiperth et al, , 2020.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Not Only Environmental Conditions but Also Human Awareness Matters: A Successful Post-Crayfish Plague Reintroduction of the White-Clawed Crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) in Northern Italy

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In Europe, invasive freshwater crayfish are not only changing freshwater ecosystems, but they are also leading to local extinctions of native freshwater crayfish. This is particularly evident for the populations of red swamp crayfish and spiny-cheek crayfish in northern Italy, which are threatening the last and isolated populations of the white-clawed crayfish. Here, we describe the steps that accompanied a successful reintroduction of the white-clawed crayfish in an Italian stream (Park Monte Barro) that, although isolated from other freshwater sites, suffered from an illegal introduction of the spiny-cheek crayfish in 2013. After the removal of presumably all the introduced spiny-cheek crayfish individuals, we started periodical surveys (twice a year) of the stream to confirm the absence of further introductions and to monitor environmental conditions. Prior to the reintroduction of the white-clawed crayfish that started in autumn 2018, we developed an intense dissemination activity to raise awareness of white-clawed crayfish features and importance among landowners surrounding the stream, including those suspected of the introduction of the spiny-cheek crayfish: we organized public meetings and we performed seven direct visits, house to house, to the local people providing information on good practices for white-clawed crayfish conservation. From 2018 to 2020, every autumn, we reintroduced a batch of 3-month-old white-clawed crayfish juveniles, and we developed a program for the monitoring of crayfish growth and density, water quality, and direct landowners’ disturbance of the site. We detected a significant increase of the white-clawed crayfish total length (TL) from the first reintroduction (October 2018) to June 2020. In 2020, crayfish were consistently larger than in the 2019 surveys; some of them were able to breed less than 2 years after the first reintroduction. In 2020, the estimated density of large crayfish reached 0.57 individuals/m2, which is lower than the density observed prior to extinction. We did not detect any case of human disturbance of the site. Our results underline that the reintroduction actions could be more effective when the stakeholders having the greatest potential impact on the species are identified, informed, and involved as primary caretakers of the activities.

show abstract

Thirty years of invasion: the distribution of the invasive crayfish Procambarus clarkii in Italy

Cited by 16 publications

References 44 publications

Rapid adaptation to invasive predators overwhelms natural gradients of intraspecific variation

Rapid adaptation to invasive predators overwhelms natural gradients of intraspecific variation

Long‐term drivers of persistence and colonization dynamics in spatially structured amphibian populations

Not Only Environmental Conditions but Also Human Awareness Matters: A Successful Post-Crayfish Plague Reintroduction of the White-Clawed Crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) in Northern Italy

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About